Many different hand grips have recently been proposed for particular tools and utensils, in order to reduce hand fatigue and to provide for ease of use. Among the hand grips commonly in use for many tools and utensils, the cross-handle appears to be quite popular and useful. The cross-handle is illustrated in U.S. Pat No. 5,242,362 (roller); U.S. Pat. No. 5,188,362 and U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,982,960 (police batons); U.S. Pat. No. 5,054,830 (shovel); U.S. Pat. No. 3,773,375 (snow removal blade); U.S. Pat. No. 2,551,486 (golf-ball retrieving device); U.S. Pat. No. 2,536,607 (broom rake ); etc.
The cross-handle allows the user to wield a tool with a greater dexterity. It also provides for an improved facility by which a utensil may be gripped by the user's other hand. Cross-handles were designed for reducing fatigue in an assigned chore by allowing the wrist of the user's second hand to remain fairly straight, while still gripping the tool. Ergonomic studies have shown that poor angling of the wrist can, in certain circumstances, result in crippling and/or painful disorders (such as carpal-tunnel syndrome).
Despite improvements for the complementary hand as shown by cross-handles, little attention has been given to hand grips for the primary hand. In many cases, due to its various positions on each tool or utensil, the primary hand is more severely strained in the exercise of a task, since it is the primary hand which imparts the driving force of the arm into the movement of a tool, while the wrist is bent at an uncomfortable and inefficient angle.
The present invention reflects the discovery that every assigned task requires different angles of attack for the work surface. This often translates into requiring, for both complementary and primary hands alike, the handle of a tool to be gripped at different angles. This is particularly true when an angle of the work surface varies (for example, in the painting of floors, walls and ceilings).
The present invention provides a universal hand grip for the primary hand, one that can be adapted for use with many different tools and utensils and which is ergonomically efficient, even when work surface angles change.
The current invention reflects the knowledge that a single hand grip can provide many useful positions for the primary hand placed upon a tool or utensil. Due to its multiply-angled design, the primary handle grip of this invention can be used with, and placed upon, the shaft of almost any tool or utensil.
The primary handle grip of the invention can also be used in combination with the cross-handles of the aforementioned United States patents.